Jonah: A 5-Day DevotionalEgzanp

In response to their repentance, the Lord extends his forgiveness (Jonah 3:10), which has been his real desire all along:

God is patient, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). . . . He “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). He manifests his sovereignty not in stubbornness but in grace; not in narrow particularism but in a willingness to forgive any people.*

To the Israelites, this should be especially clear in Jonah 3:10, which borrows language from a story in their past. Just as the Lord “relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to” the Ninevites for their evil, there was a time when he “relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on” the Israelites for their evil (Ex. 32:14; the Hebrew is exactly the same in Jonah and Exodus). Once more, this is meant to humble the Israelites. No longer can they look down on other nations for their evil, delighting in their coming judgment, when they themselves have been just as evil and just as much in need of the Lord’s mercy and grace. If Israel received this needed mercy and grace, should they not desire it for others who need it? And if we have experienced this same mercy and grace through Jesus, should our hearts not burn with desire for others to experience it as well? 

As for Jonah, he had experienced the Lord’s mercy and grace in the last chapter. Surely he will now respond with deep praise to the Lord for showing this same mercy and grace to others. This might be our hope as we enter the next chapter, but we should be ready to be deeply disappointed.

Notes:

1. Stuart, Douglas. Hosea–Jonah. WBC. Waco, TX: Word, 1987, 496, quoting the NIV 1984.